Three South Bay tech-company workers have been charged in two separate cases that authorities said involve wire fraud and economic espionage.

The former global transportation manager for Network Appliance was charged Tuesday with wire fraud on suspicion of using her position to embezzle $90,000 by charging personal expenses to company credit cards.

Bernadette Escue, 41, who worked in NetApp’s Sunnyvale facility, is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in San Jose on Oct. 11. The maximum penalty for wire fraud is 20 years in prison and a fine of $1 million, plus restitution.

According to U.S. Attorney Scott Schools, from February 2001 to October 2003, Escue fraudulently charged more than $90,000 on personal expenses on her corporate credit cards, including $12,900 for her son’s tuition at a private high school in San Francisco.

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel.

Schools also announced that two South Bay men were indicted Tuesday on charges of conspiracy to commit economic espionage and to steal trade secrets. The indictment alleges that 42-year-old Lan Lee, a.k.a. Lan Li, of Palo Alto, and 34-year-old Yuefei Ge, of San Jose, conspired to steal trade secrets from their employer at the time, NetLogic Microsystems of Mountain View, and from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, where they were not employed.

The indictment alleges that the defendants created a company, SICO Microsystems, for the purpose of developing and marketing products derived from and using the stolen trade secrets. The trade secrets involved information related to computer chip design and development.

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